What “Independence Day 2” Was Going To Be

Years ago, after the release of the 1996 alien invasion movie “Independence Day,” director Roland Emmerich revealed that he was working on a sequel to the alien invasion tale.

Plans changed and that floundered. By the time he got around to doing the true sequel, next week’s “Independence Day: Resurgence,” the result was very different from his earlier follow-up’s goal. Now, Emmerich has spoken about that earlier version with Empire:

“It was after 9/11 and Dean and I wanted to make the movie about peace, and it just didn’t work. There’s still an element of that in the new one, but that version was only about that. We shoot aliens down accidentally and then at the end of the movie they land on the White House lawn and say ‘we come in peace’ and that was it. It was just too weak an idea and we didn’t really want to do it.”

While the first “Independence Day” was conceived as a one-off movie, Emmerich talked about changing his mind and how further sequels won’t boast as large a gap:

“Over the years I realized how iconic the film had become for people and I was repeatedly asked by [20th Century] Fox to do it [a sequel]. If it’s successful enough, yes [there’ll be a third movie], because it’s set up for a sequel…in 20 years? No, I wouldn’t want to make it with a Zimmer frame.”